Crisis of merit in lower judiciary

NEW DELHI: Judiciary faces a crisis of merit at a crucial layer as majority of the states are finding it difficult to fill 25% of district judge posts through a limited departmental examination that was devised to give talent a speedy promotion route.

This became clear before the Supreme Court on Tuesday as senior advocate Vijay Hansaria as amicus curiae pointed to the large number of vacancies in district judge posts, which is the highest level in the lower judiciary responsible for fighting the huge pendency of nearly 2.6 crore cases.

The large number of posts falling under the cadre of Higher Judicial Service was mainly vacant due to failure of existing judicial officers to clear the tough departmental competitive test. The situation is so bad that in Tripura, eight posts were advertised under the speedy promotional route but only two candidates applied, Hansaria said.

Taking up an application filed by Rajasthan Judicial Service Officers’ Association through counsel A D N Rao, a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan said this was the situation in almost all states.

Rao gave a chart of the vacancies under 25% quota for speedy promotion through competitive examination. It said West Bengal had 50 vacancies, Uttar Pradesh 24, Maharashtra 42 and Orissa 12. The apex court had noticed on January 13 that in Bihar, though 16 posts were available, the HC could fill only two.

The bench issued notice to high courts for their response to the proposal — fill the existing vacancies through promotion based on seniority and reduce the competitive examination quota from 25% to 5%.

At present, 50% of posts of district judge are filled through promotion, 25% through direct recruitment from lawyers and 25% through limited departmental examination. Though the bench felt 25% posts through departmental examination could be filled through an all-India competitive examination, it veered around to the idea of reducing the quota.

The HCs have been asked to send their responses to the apex court before April 20, when the matter will be taken up for hearing afresh.